9/21/2020 1 Comment Up and out Oh holy cow, wow where do I even begin!?
Well, it's been probably the fastest summer I've had in my life thus far. The rona is still a thing, and the bike shortage of 2020 has been very real. I have mostly spent my time this summer wrenching and working myself into oblivion, or playing in the woods with friends when I have a spare moment. I am grateful for the time on my bike as it has helped my stay rooted and reminded how sweet life is, when surrounded by chaos out of my control. In the last few weeks of summer I did two major things. I moved into a new house, and I went on an epic bikepacking trip. The exciting thing about this new house is that I will be here for a long time, because I am gonna be buying it here very shortly! I did not see myself buying a house at this age, it didn't even seem close to being a realistic possibility. But as quarantine unfolded, my living situation as a renter began to unravel. I had the money I saved from unemployment at the beginning of quarantine, and began figuring out my next move to get back in control of my home life. One star aligned after another and I moved into the home of a friend with intentions to buy it from her! It feels really wild, but really right. I can't wait to create my ultimate bike punk dream house, full of plants and animals and great friends. If you have construction experience, let me know. She's a bit of a diamond in the rough, but my diamond! Two days after I moved into the new place, I left for a week long bikepacking trip up the North Country Trail. My good friend and co-worker, Emily, and I had been planning this trip since we saw the route on bikepacking.com. The NCT is a multi-use (in some places) trail that goes from Vermont to North Dakota. It passes through the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan and offers access to a big portion of raw single track within mid Michigan, and the Manistee National Forest, which is the section that this route goes through. (If you haven't been out on the NCT I HIGHLY recommend it.) The written route for our trip starts in White Cloud, at the M-20 trailhead and ends at the Vasa trailhead in Traverse City. Emily and I altered the route and started at my boyfriend's family cabin south of Baldwin and ended at Right Brain Brewery in downtown Traverse! We took 5 days, and went 125 miles with 8500 ft of climbing. It's so hard to even begin to explain what we saw or what we learned and experienced. But let's try. The scenery, the woods, were stunning. Whether we were down in a low wet spot, with sparkling streams or way up high on top of Michigan's mountains (aka a sand dune) everywhere we looked we saw beauty. The moss and the ferns provided excellent habitats for frogs that jumped out of our way and mushrooms that burst if we hit them with out tires. I kept joking that the moss was like bowling bumpers, as it grew thick along side of the cut trail and kept my heavy bowling ball of a bike from going off trail. The sweeping views of the various rivers and valleys that we had climbed over were laid out so perfectly, with the color in the leaves just starting to turn, and the further north we climbed, the more golds and reds we saw. We lifted our bikes over lots of trees across the trail, and pushed them up and walked them down treacherous and impossible ravines and cliff edges. We passed through the Ward Hills, Udell Hills and Big M, Red Bridge and the Manistee High Rollway. We just kept going up, up and out of each valley. We camped the first two nights in the national forest and the last two nights at forest campgrounds. Thursday night was the coldest and therefore decided it would be our last. We did not have the right gear to sustain another 30 degree night! To still reach our goal on Friday, now the last day, we took the advice of an old hunter we came across as he was two tracking in his Subaru with his wife and dog. He asked why we were way out in the woods if we were trying to get to Traverse, because it was only 12 miles away by road. Emily and I realized we were ready for a short cut and took the 6 miles of seasonal road out of the woods and into civilization. The rest of the miles that day were spent on the busy road getting us down to the bay and across to the brewery! We were happy we took that guys advice. My boyfriend Ryan dropped us off at the start and Em's man picked us up at the end. All of our friends showed tremendous support, from sending us messages via social media, to hand writing us a letter to read at the end of each day (Thank you Lisa!). We even had a goodie package hidden for us at the Red Bridge trailhead (Thank you Jill and Dan!). Which was perfect timing because I was out of snacks and we were just about to start the most extreme segment, elevation wise. It was an incredible trip, I had the opportunity to practice asking for help and practice a lot of patience. I am so proud of Emily and I for accomplishing this goal that we had been planning for so long and really giving it our best. We had so many wins on this trip, it was really confidence inspiring. No mechanicals, no crashes, none of our gear fell off and we didn't lose anything. I cut my foot at the lake of out first camp ground but that was about it! We nailed it. And I'm so proud of us! That will probably be my last big trip of the season, as now I've got to keep my head down and finish some projects around the new house!! Also hoping to get back to writing monthly for the blahg again, so this time, it won't be so long until you here from me! Cheers and keep pedaling!
1 Comment
Brap Smit
9/21/2020 08:35:20 pm
Love you, friend! So glad you’ve carved a life to share Joy, Bikes and Art with your friends. This made me smile. Congrats on the house!
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AuthorLiz is a bike mechanic in Grand Rapids MI. She is one of two female mechanics in the city. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Drawing and has one dog and one hedgehog. Archives
March 2021
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